Men of the Bible | Page 9

with so great a reward? No! let me go a little way over
Jordan with the king, and then "Let thy servant, I pray thee, turn back
again, that I may die in mine own city, and be buried by the grave of
my father and of my mother." "But," he hastened to add, as if anxious to
show that he appreciated to the full the king's generous offer, and saw
the advantages it presented to those who were able to enjoy them,
"behold thy servant Chimham," my son, "let him go over with my lord
the king; and do to him what shall seem good unto thee" (verse 37).
With a plea so expressed, David could not but acquiesce: "The king
kissed Barzillai, and blessed him; and he returned unto his own
place . . . and Chimham went on with him" (verses 39, 40), to become
famous as the founder of a caravanserai, or halting-place for pilgrims
on the road between Jerusalem and Bethlehem, which for at least four
centuries continued to bear his name (Jer. xli. 17) and which may even,
it has been conjectured, have been the same which, at the time of the
Christian era "furnished shelter for two travellers with their infant child,
when 'there was no room in the inn.'"[2]
Round Barzillai's own name no such associations have gathered. After
his parting with David we do not hear of him again, if we except a
passing reference in David's dying instructions to Solomon, to "shew
kindness unto the sons of Barzillai the Gileadite" (1 Kings ii. 7), and
the mention, as late as the return from Babylon, of a family of priests
who traced their descent to a marriage with the Gileadite's daughter,
and prided themselves on the distinctive title of "the children of
Barzillai" (Ezra ii. 61). But in the absence of anything to the contrary,
we may be allowed to conjecture that, full of years and experience,
surrounded by all the love which his useful, helpful life had called forth,
Barzillai died in peace among his own people, and was buried, as he

had himself desired, by his parents' grave.
Such, then, is the story of Barzillai's life, so far as the Bible reveals it to
us. It is, as I have already said, as an old man that he is principally
brought before us, and in thinking of his character further, it may be
well to do so from this point of view, and see what he has to teach us
regarding a true old age. Four points at least stand out clearly from the
Bible narrative.
I.
Barzillai was evidently by nature a warm-hearted, sunshiny old man,
himself happy and making others happy.
David himself was such a man before the great sin which brought a
trouble and a sorrow into his life that he was never again able wholly to
surmount. And it may have been the sight of his own lost gaiety and
lightness of spirit in the aged Gileadite that first drew out his heart to
him.
It may be said, perhaps, that it was easy for Barzillai to be cheerful. The
sun had shone on him very brightly: the good things of life had fallen
very freely to his share. He was, according to the Bible record, "a very
great man" (2 Sam. xix. 32), evidently a most successful farmer, rich in
flocks and herds, looked up and respected in the district in which he
lived. But after all, is it the universal, or even the general, experience
that wealth and power are associated with simple cheerfulness and
happiness? Could anything, for example, have exceeded the bitterness
and the boorishness of the other rich flockmaster whom David's youths,
with Eastern frankness, had asked, "Give, we pray thee, whatsoever
cometh to thine hand unto thy servants, and to thy son David" "Who is
David? and who is the son of Jesse?" burst out Nabal in a fury. "Shall I
then take my bread, and my water . . . and give it unto men whom I
know not whence they be?" (1 Sam. xxv. 8, 10, 11). And even if that be
an extreme instance, it will not be denied that outward blessings in
themselves, and considered only by themselves, are apt to have a
hardening rather than a softening effect. It says much, therefore, for
Barzillai, that amidst his great possessions, he still kept the free, open,

happy disposition of youth.
II.
That he did so, is due amongst other reasons to the fact that he was a
generous man.
His unsolicited assistance of David clearly proves this, while the very
length of the catalogue of articles with which he and his friends
supplied the fugitive's needs, proves that when he gave, he did so in no